Sticky notes
by DevilTito
Summary: It started out rather innocently. About a week after the key-incident Gray started carrying out his small revenge. The first time he went for something subtle that wouldn't make Lucy suspicious, so he took residence in their living room with a book in his hand, waiting to see if he had been successful. Oneshot for Graylu week day 3 - notes. Complete.


**A/N: I'm not entirely happy with how this turned out, but I don't have time to rewrite it, so it'll do. Enjoy!**

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 _Sticky notes_

One thing Gray discovered within the first week of living together with Lucy was her tendency of writing small tasks and her thoughts on sticky notes and leaving them around the house. He would often find her quick scribbles stuck to the walls and cabinets, sometimes even on the mirrors or windows, and wonder how a somewhat organized person like Lucy would leave the damned flaps of papers in seemingly random places. He and Lucy both liked having a clean house with as little mess as possible, so it started nagging him when he found the sticky notes around every other corner.

Saying that Lucy was organized was actually a very loaded statement. Sure, she kept the house tidy, as did Gray, but there was one room that he stayed far away from, because it was a labyrinth inside and he didn't want to get swallowed up and never have his body found. That room was Lucy's office and it was the biggest mess he had ever seen. If Gray was to open the door, he would have to jump aside to avoid drowning in a flood of paper. Just thinking about all the papercuts he would get if he went inside was enough to ensure that he stayed outside it all times - except when Lucy was on the verge of tears from desperation, which had happened when she lost her keys inside.

"Lucy, you'll never find your keys again." Gray had groaned as he sifted through another pile of files.

"They have to be in here somewhere!" She had cried out as she dug deeper into the stacks of paper on her desk. Lucy was sure they had been on her desk that morning, so they had to be around here somewhere. Maybe they had fallen on the floor and she had kicked them away by accident.

"If you just cleaned up in here and organized, you wouldn't need to swim through the stacks of paper to look!" The ice mage replied through gritted teeth as he tried to climb towards the door and slid back to the floor.

"It's not as bad as you make it sound! It's called organized chaos…" Lucy's voice had gotten weaker towards the end of her sentence and she looked away sheepishly.

Ever since she got a new publisher that made her novel series become one of the top-sellers in all of Fiore, she had been working on publishing another series she had worked on for years, meaning all her drafts, copies and files from her already published books along with all her work for the new series was practically sitting on the floor in piles that reached halfway up Gray's shin. The piles of loose paper had been tied with some flimsy string and stacked all across the floor, covering every inch except from a slight path stretching from the door to the gigantic mahogany desk Lucy usually worked at.

Gray had finally made it to the door and turned around to scold Lucy some more, when her hand skimmed something cold on the table top. Looking puzzled, Lucy had shoved some more papers to the side in search of whatever had brushed against her skin and, lo and behold, she pulled out the keys from beneath one of the sticky notes that Gray had started to despise slightly. He had felt a vein throb near his forehead and had tried his best to take deep calming breaths, but watching Lucy fidget nervously made him want to pour lemon juice over the numerous papercuts she had obtained the past two hours. Instead he promptly left the room without another word and went for a walk to cool off.

It started out rather innocently. About a week after the key-incident Gray started carrying out his small revenge. The first time he went for something subtle that wouldn't make Lucy suspicious, so he took residence in their living room with a book in his hand, waiting to see if he had been successful. Needless to say, he was ecstatic when Lucy brought down a medium-sized box filled to the brim with bottles of nail polish. Placing the box on the coffee table, Lucy skimmed her hand across the top of the bottles before rummaging through it.

"Can't choose what color to wear?" Gray asked as he looked up from the book he wasn't even reading.

"No, I'm getting rid of them. I wanted to declutter." Lucy answered with a sweet smile as she pulled out a few of her favorite bottles. Looking at them with a mixture of sadness and fondness she put them back, picked up the box and went outside to dispose of it.

Gray looked after her for a few seconds, not really sure how to feel about tricking his girlfriend. He was surprised that it had worked. He had done his best to copy Lucy's neat italic script and had been satisfied when the only difference between his and hers had been in the slight curves of the taller letters, and although he had hoped she wouldn't notice that he had forged her handwriting, he was actually feeling something close to giddy. He was sure it had only succeeded because Lucy only glanced at the notes when she went to complete the tasks written on them, but he would have to test it again.

The next day he was lounging in the kitchen when Lucy entered and headed straight for the cupboard where she kept her baking essentials. Pulling out flour and sugar, Gray propped himself on the kitchen island and started playing with the cookie cutters his girlfriend had set out.

"What are you making?" He asked curiously, watching as Lucy flipped through the pages of her recipe collection that she had put together herself.

"I felt like baking cookies." She beamed as she took out the rest of the ingredients she needed.

"How come?" Gray feigned innocence knowing full well how the thought had gotten into Lucy's head.

"Remember we were talking about that café that Erza recommended? It made me crave cookies for some reason, even if they only sell bigger cakes." She explained while leaving the butter in the sun to soften it somewhat.

"I see. Well, I'll leave you to it." Gray leaned over and placed a kiss on Lucy's lips. He heard her starting to hum as he left the kitchen. Lucy found baking therapeutic, so she appreciated having the kitchen all to herself, which meant Gray was free to do whatever he liked, and right now it was to figure out what else to write on the sticky notes and have her do.

He knew he had to word it carefully, or else Lucy would see right through him, but so far she had done everything Gray had wanted her to. She had thrown out a good portion of her nail polishes because her sticky note had said "declutter nail polish", cleaned out the attic that morning and was currently making cookies, because the yellow flaps had told her to. The conclusion Gray had reached was that it was too risky to write down something Lucy hadn't mentioned, or that he knew she wouldn't do of her own accord.

He also had to be careful with his wording and what pens he used as well as where he placed the notes. He had actually placed multiple notes in his own line of sight, which was a lot higher than Lucy usually put them. She had actually been quite close to discovering what he had been up to, but had been momentarily distracted and left to do something else, which gave Gray just enough time to take down and replace one of Lucy's sticky notes with one of his own.

Gray knew he couldn't take it too far, Lucy wasn't stupid and she would catch on quickly if she did a lot of things she usually would have put off for a few days. The only reason his revenge was even succeeding was because of her tendency to be scatterbrained and having a million thoughts a minute. It was one of the things that he loved about her, but for the moment he would be petty and utilize that trait of hers. He wasn't planning on doing anything out of line, just pass on a few chores he didn't feel like doing and the like.

It went on for close to three weeks and had sort of become Gray's new hobby. Lucy was working on an outline for her sub-plot in one of her more complex novels, so she was mostly working in her office or doing chores to keep her brain on the backburner for a while. Gray had already made her clean most of the house, plant the seeds she had bought weeks ago and generally made her confused as to why she would write the same notes twice. His fun, however, had to come to an end sooner or later.

Gray had been planning on _persuading_ Lucy to cook dinner the following day, but was so busy deciding what he wanted to eat that he hadn't heard her approach behind him and look over his shoulder.

"Is that my notepad?" Lucy asked, making Gray jump and whip around to face her. She smiled a little at having frightened him, but returned her attention to the wad of yellow sticky notes in his hand.

"Yes, I just-" Gray was racking his brain for an explanation, but Lucy leaned forward and read what was written on the top note, before he could utter a word.

"Oh, are you making dinner tomorrow? I would like something with chicken." Lucy requested and started gushing over how happy she was that Gray had started to use the sticky notes as well, asking himif he found them as useful as she did.

The ice mage came to term with the end of his short, but sweet revenge and figured that having to make dinner wasn't the worst thing he could be punished with. It had been a close call, and if Lucy had discovered that he had been playing tricks on her, she would have roasted him alive. He actually felt somewhat satisfied with the amount of notes he had tampered with, and decided to stop before things got out of hand, but every once in a while, Lucy would find notes that said to buy ice cream or to fold the laundry in places that she didn't remember putting them in.


End file.
